What woudl you say is the most efficient use of a gas pool heater? We've had some warm days, but cool nights, during this Indian Summer in the North East. I expected to go in the pool each day of the weekend, but wasn't sure. So, I just heated the pool up to the desired temperature each of the days. This required the heater to run for a couple hours to raise the temperature 5-6 degrees. (I know I should look into Solar Heat...that's next year.) Would I have been better off raising it to the desired temperature and maintaining that temperature 24/7 for the weekend in terms of gas use? Or would it probably have been a wash?

The higher the water temperature the more heat you lose. So keeping the temperature high at all times uses the most energy. If you can figure out periods when you allow the temperature to go lower you will use less total energy. Because it can take a significant amount of time to heat the pool, making effective use of this requires some advance planning.

For swimming only over the weekend, this time of year, you can turn the heater on on Thursday evening or Friday morning and off on Sunday late afternoon and save money. The heater might run all day Friday, but that will still be less total usage than if you left it on all week.

Yes, turn it on Saturday morning if your heater is able to bring the temperature up quickly enough. I takes my heater more than 24 hours to bring the temperature back up after being off for five days in typical late fall weather. Thus the need to turn it on on Friday. Of course many people have larger heaters than I have.

This is why heat pumps are often left on all the time. A typical heat pump has much less heat output than the typical gas heater. With a small heater it can take so long to get back up to temperature that it is simpler to leave it on all the time. Of course all this depends on the relative sizes of your heater and pool.

Well-known member

I agree, a combination of keeping your solar cover on, checking to see when you are going to have warm weather and direct sunlight, you should be able (with a decent sized heater) be able to bring your pool up to speed in 1 - 2 days.

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